thinkbroadband

Will FTTP on-demand be available from 18th March?
Monday 18 February 2013 23:12:18 by
Andrew Ferguson

The BT Wholesale price lists are showing that the much talked about FTTP
on-demand product has prices that come into effect on 18th March 2013,
suggesting it may be available to retailers from that date. The on-demand
product that offers you the chance to future proof your broadband connection
and say goodbye to all the connection variability that comes with xDSL
products, alas at a price.

Update 11:45am: While the price list takes effect from 18th March, we
have been told that the early market deployment will not start until the end of
March 2013.

Back in December 2012 an estimate of
£1500 for a property that is 500m from the fibre aggregation point (which
will usually be fairly close to your green street cabinet) was released. The
new price list confirms the fixed £500 connection charge, and gives prices for
six different charge bands which are in addition to the fixed fee.

Charge Band

Price Range

0

£0

1

£1 - £200

2

£201 - £500

3

£501 - £1000

4

£1001 - £3000

5

£3001 and above

Hopefully once the launch date approaches we will see more information on
pricing and worked examples so that people can get an idea of how much their
connection would cost and be ready for the price tag once their chosen retailer
informs them what Openreach will want to deliver them a pure fibre
connection.

The first person to order FTTP on-demand in a street will not be shouldering
the full cost of getting that the shared components. As we understand it the
first connection in a street will not have to pay the full cost for fibre
tubing, blowing, a fibre splitter and fibre manifold. How the costs for these
components is shared out is down to the accountants and will be modelled and is
the key to the success of FTTP on-demand and whether it will be a political
tick box product, or a real game changer that encourages other full fibre
providers and investors to up their game to the next level.

The key thing at this stage is that people should not panic over high prices
that can be estimated using the excess construction charges that appear on BT
Wholesale price lists because those costs assume one person is ordering and
paying for everything. BT Wholesale is taking a commercial risk by not charging
the full cost to the first customer in a street, in the hope that others will
subsequently order the service. Therefore until the first fully worked examples
and live orders are placed all we can say on price is that the £1500 estimate
for a 500m connection and it is possible some retailers may add their own
charges for acting as the go-between during the order and installation
process.

Comments

Posted by
herdwick over 4 years ago
The 36 month minimum term will make some think twice.

Posted by
mabibby over 4 years ago
I'd pay it in a heartbeat, surely the £1000-2000 investment will add value to your property.

Posted by
herdwick over 4 years ago
Only if someone buying the house thinks the extra is worth it over an FTTC service alternative.

Posted by
mabibby over 4 years ago
@herdwick ...well yes obviously, in the same way someone might find piped gas to their house better than an oil tank outside. Either way £1000-2000 is nothing to get the fibre ran direct.

Posted by
YaZiN over 4 years ago
Keeping an eye on this as I'm having problems with my recent FTTC install from December. At less than 350m's from the fibre cab I would hope to be in the lower price bands.

Posted by
mabibby over 4 years ago
There has to be some money made on running bets surrounding the respective Charge Band to Distance metrics.

I'm offering

11/4 on 250m < 500m being Charge Band 3
9/2 on Aggregation Node being in your front garden for Charge Band 0

:)

Posted by
FTTH over 4 years ago
If it truly delivers 300Mb/30Mb without caps, sounds good.
If it is 'upto 300Mb' and with usage caps and binding me in for 3 years. Nope.

I would prefer that BT chose a more cost effective deployment method. Blowing/splicing for every customer will cause resource delays / excessive cost.

Posted by
GMAN99 over 4 years ago
If you don't blow/splice for each customer how do you get fibre to their home???

Posted by
GMAN99 over 4 years ago
The price doesn't put me off to be honest and for a business even if top band is pittance compared to a proper Ethernet delivery.

I just can't see me having a need for it that's all not for quite some time, I don't use the 50-60Mbps I have very often and that speed could rise even further in the future with upgrades

Posted by
Dixinormous over 4 years ago
Remembering this is a wholesale product I'm quite convinced that these charge bands are only relevant where ISPs are rolling the excess construction costs into the ongoing ones - they pre-authorise a charge level and have to be consulted if it's broken.

Posted by
FTTH over 4 years ago
@ GMAN99
Plug and play for the final connection, standard low skill engineers can use pre-term cables.
Minimal tooling and 5-10 jobs a day is feasible.
Happy to share how we do this for others if you like.

Posted by
herdwick over 4 years ago
pre-term cables still need a clear duct infrastructure with space though. Verizon's FIOS has a cost per home passed ($1000 ?) plus a cost per home connected ($600 ?) so at 20% takeup it costs them $5600 per home connected. What's the best we can offer here ?

Posted by
GMAN99 over 4 years ago
Please share, you have my interest FTTH :)

Posted by
nOw2 over 4 years ago
I wonder if the fibre can run from a different cabinet to the phone?

I've got a FTTC cabinet 150m from house, linked by pole literally on the edge of my property's boundary to the houses opposite, but my phone line is run underground from a different cabinet which is 800m away.

Posted by
KarlAustin over 4 years ago
@GMAN99 - The top band would be comparable to the install cost for a fully symmetric leased line. Of course the monthly costs of a leased line are going to be more - but not as much as you'd think these days, given you're getting a symmetric service with (hopefully) a decent SLA on fixes.

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
@now2 For now don't know the answer, the real question is where is the fibre aggregator it might be in the middle of the two cabinets.

The aggregator usually hides very well in a pavement chamber so unless you see it being installed hard to second guess where it is.

Posted by
mdar5 over 4 years ago
...and the aggregator might therefore be a very long way away from your property.
...and the final section (D-side) from the cabinet to your house might not be ducted but laid direct in the ground.

A FTTH installation in those circumstances would certainly cost you a fair bit.

Presumably there is nothing (in theory)to prevent an enterprising person funding the up-front cost for their street and then acting as a re-seller of FTTH to their neighbours. Exactly how this might work legally/contractually/practically etc might be more complex!

Posted by
csimon over 4 years ago
£2000, I'd do it, no hesitation.£3000 I'd have to think a little.Also completely dependent on monthly payment & length of contract etc. but being 8km from the exchange (which is why after 13yrs I'm still only on 0.7kbps) I think they won't offer me such a bargain price! Probably best wait til FTTC arrives (thru the Superfast Wales scheme) and get FTTP from there! People are willing to pay. Demand exists where there is little supply. That's something commercial operators still haven't managed to work out. It's the majority who have a large supply that demand low cost services.

Posted by
chrisdev over 4 years ago
@csimon Couldn't have said it better myself. I'd pay £2000 in a heartbeat for FTTH but the chances of it arriving in rural Berwickshire are nil. Only with local financial models will it get off the ground but charging higher prices for living rural doesn't go down well with some. Strange, as that location based charging is exactly what is being proposed with each FTTH install :)

Posted by
GMAN99 over 4 years ago
"but charging higher prices for living rural doesn't go down well with some"

But if it costs more to deploy......

Posted by
chrisdev over 4 years ago
@GMAN99 Personally, I totally agree, but then let's deploy a common service, and I'll happily pay more for that same service.

Posted by
GMAN99 over 4 years ago
What do you mean by a common service? I doubt very much anyone has any axe to grind with rural areas, it just happens that its very likely to cost more to deploy fibre to those areas that urban locations that's all.

Posted by
GMAN99 over 4 years ago
I guess the main problem is that a FTTC presence is required for FOD so that will be the main stumbling block for many rurals never mind the cost of FOD :(

Posted by
themanstan over 4 years ago
@FTTH

as people have said before there are no residential uncontended packages. You'd have to buy a business package and >99.99% of the population would not even consider paying the costs.

Posted by
uniquename over 4 years ago
@csimon (and @chrisdev)
No "Probably best wait til FTTC arrives" about it. You have no choice but to wait for FTTC being available to you, as FTTPoD is only going to be supplied to FTTC areas.

Posted by
pehaw over 4 years ago
@nOw2 about 21 hours ago
"I wonder if the fibre can run from a different cabinet to the phone?"

This. Anyone have any idea about this? Would be very useful for many people who are not on a FTTC-enabled cabinet but have a different one located very close to their property.

Posted by
herdwick over 4 years ago
it doesn't come from the cabinet in any case, it comes from the fibre infrastructure feeding the cabinets so physically a non-FTTC enabled customer should be able to get FTTPoD but this may not be "policy" and there may be other issues like blocked ducts (or no ducts) that are behind the lack of FTTC in the first place.

Posted by
fastman over 4 years ago
FOD will only be avaialable on FTTC enabled Cabinets - so if cabinet not enabled no FOD

Posted by
johnct over 4 years ago
So if someone is about 200meters from cab
cost will be about £200 plus £500 install fee is that right ?

Posted by
Dixinormous over 4 years ago
Not even close johnct.

Posted by
ryant704 over 4 years ago
John it would be £400 + £500
£2 = 1m of Fibre

Posted by
BTfanboy over 4 years ago
Someone's got deep pockets, especially at times like this.

@gman99
The price doesn't put me off to be honest and for a business even if top band is pittance compared to a proper Ethernet delivery.